1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a surgical device for injecting a fluid and/or for removing tissue cells from a biological body or structure, including a supply device having a fluid jet unit for injecting a separation fluid or a process fluid and/or including a suction device for suctioning off separated or dissolved tissue cells and/or the separation fluid or the process fluid, and a surgical hand piece with an inner injection cannula and an outer suction tube, both of which form an annular suction channel in the region of the surgical hand piece. The outer suction tube is adapted to be placed on the injection cannula and to be secured to the surgical hand piece. The injection cannula includes a front nozzle opening and the suction tube includes a plurality of suction bores distributed along its periphery. Such device and instrument is used in surgical clinical settings to suction off fatty tissue for health and cosmetic reasons. Such device and instrument is also used for removing vital tissue cells, for example from the liver, for the purpose of reproducing these tissue cells through cell division and then inserting the tissue cells in the same or in a different biological body or structure.
2) Description of the Related Art
A number of methods and devices are known that can achieve this goal.
For example, DE 299 14 230 U1 describes a cannula for suctioning off fatty tissue, with the cannula formed as a tube that has one closed end and an other open end that is connected by an adapter to a suction device. The tube includes several suction openings distributed along the periphery, with the size of the openings adapted to the size of the fatty tissue cells.
The cannula is pierced into the corresponding tissue layers and is continuously moved back and forth during the procedure. Through the force generated by the vacuum and with support of the mechanical force of the moving cannula, tissue cells are destructively torn away and then suctioned off. This method is very stressful for the patient and is therefore only rarely used in practice.
It is known to reduce the stress by injecting, in a separate process step before the surgical procedure, a process fluid into the affected tissue to dissolve the tissue cells, which can then be more effectively and more easily suctioned off. The injected process fluid together with the dissolved tissue cells are suctioned off through the suction tube.
DE 200 09 786 U1 describes a device for suctioning off fatty tissue, which functionally combines the two aforedescribed process steps, i.e., injecting the tissue-dissolving process fluid and suctioning off the dissolved tissue cells. For this purpose, an interior injection line for the tissue-dissolving process fluid is arranged in the suction cannula, with the exit opening of the injection line disposed on the distal end of the suction cannula and connected to a process fluid pump. In this way, process fluid is injected continuously and suctioned off together with the fatty tissue cells. This makes the process more continuous and shortens the duration of the surgical procedure.
Disadvantageously, however, the aforementioned technical solutions have in common that they destroy not only the fatty tissue cells, but also adjacent tissue cells, such as blood cells. This can harm the human body and complicate and prolong the healing process. These technical solutions are therefore not suitable for removing healthy tissue cells for further use.
DE 100 33 278 A1 describes a surgical device for removing tissue cells from a biological structure that obviates this disadvantage. This device includes a water jet unit with a pressure generator and an injection cannula emitting a separation water jet under pressure, and a suction device that includes a suction pump and a suction tube with the suction openings distributed along the periphery, through which the separated tissue cells are discharged together with the used water. The injection cannula for the emitted water jet is arranged in the interior of the suction tube, with both the cannula and the suction tube combined in a hand piece that can be interchanged via a screw-in adapter.
The exit opening of the injection cannula has a cross-section and the exiting water jet a pressure suitable to cause the water jet to exert a peeling effect.
The water jet is able to cut through or separate tissue parts. However, the tissue cells are not destroyed, because due to the curved surface and the pliability of the tissue cells, the water jet does not experience any resistance and is therefore not deflected in its effective direction. As a result, the water jet finds its way between the tissue cells in an intelligent manner, until it meets resistance essential for developing a separation force, thereby urging the adjacent tissue cells apart and separating them, without destroying them. Because the selection is gentle, there is no need to inject a process fluid for dissolving the tissue cells, as was required in the prior art.
The relatively large number of applications and the large number of implementations of such hand piece, due to the different required diameters, and the desired high utilization rate for the entire apparatus make it necessary to have a large number of hand pieces available with different lengths, different diameters of the suction tube, and different suction openings in the suction tube. This large number of tools makes the entire unit unduly expensive.
Moreover, many situations require application of an anesthetic before the surgical procedure, which necessitates special injection instruments. This further increases the cost of the surgical procedure and the conversion time from the injection unit to the tissue removal unit, and vice versa.
It is therefore an object of the invention to develop a device of the aforedescribed type for removal of tissue cells, which can be used universally for anesthesia and for tissue removal and which has a simple design and is easy to operate.